[Libya Herald] The head of the Benghazi Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Abdulsalam Al-Mihdawi, was kidnapped yesterday evening in Benghazi by an unknown group of gunnies.

Sources told the Libya Herald that Mihdawi and two colleagues were waiting in their vehicle at a traffic light on Venezia Street in the Hawari district of Benghazi when two masked gunnies jumped out of a nearby car and seized the officer.

Shortly after the incident was reported, local police organised search squads to check nearby roads for any sign of the officer or his kidnappers, and later that evening, residents of Benghazi and officers from the security forces gathered outside the Tebesti hotel to condemn the abduction.

Today, the head of Benghazi's local council, Mahmoud Buraziza, told the Libya Herald that the council and city authorities strongly condemned the incident, saying: "We are against killing, kidnapping or any such crimes, and we are firmly on the side of the law."

Buraziza also pointed out that Mihdawi had only recently been appointed to his post in the CID in Benghazi.